Alain Ducasse consulting on Pinch at Empire City

Apr. 16, 2013

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Alain Ducasse, the French chef with a constellation of Michelin-starred restaurants in New York, Paris and Monte Carlo, is consulting on a restaurant coming soon to the newly renovated Empire City Casino at Yonkers Raceway.

Pinch, an “innovative premium casual American grill,” will be inspired by a 1950s diner, says Taryn Duffy, the casino’s public affairs director. The menu will include classic American favorites with a twist, everything from sushi to burgers to small plates.

“Not an enormous menu, but broad,” says Clark Wolf, a restaurant consultant working on Empire City’s food and beverage program. “The kinds of things people like to eat.”

And drink, apparently. The beer list will carry more than 100 New York craft brews, and there will be tap stations at tables so customers can pour their own. Duffy says the restaurant should be open by Memorial Day.

“What we really want is for Pinch to be available for a more upscale customer who wants a more urban, world-class experience without having to go all the way into the city,” says Wolf. “Somewhere where they can game for a while, party for a while, eat for a while.”

The chef will be Fabienne Eymard, who has worked under Ducasse at Benoit in Manhattan. Her previous experience includes Taillevant in Paris and Caprice in Switzerland. Executive pastry chef Tamber Weiersheuser is formerly of Mix and THE Hotel at Mandalay Bay, both in Las Vegas.

The restaurant is one of two in the new $50 million expansion of the casino, which is owned by the Rooney family. The other, Dan Rooney’s Cafe, is an Irish pub and sports bar inspired by the first business the family owned in Pittsburgh in the early 1900s. The chef there, Christopher Lee, has Michelin stars from his time as chef at Aureole and Gilt, both in Manhattan. Dan Rooney’s Cafe opened in March.

Ducasse Studios, the chef’s consulting division, is working with developer Mark Advent, known for New York New York Hotel & Casino and Terrible’s Casino & Hotel, both in Las Vegas, and River Rock Casino in California. The design firm is Roman and Williams, whose projects include the Ace Hotel and the Standard Hotel in Manhattan.

Other restaurants at the casino are getting a facelift. The food court is being reintroduced as The Big Kitchen, and will have a new coffee bar and five stations: New Original Ray’s, The Fry Shack, Empire Grill, Canton Kitchen and Noodle Shop, and Corner Deli. There will be new menus at Nonno’s Italian restaurant and the trackside Empire Terrace Restaurant. And there will be a revamp of the trackside Grab ‘N Go: it will eventually be renamed and turned into a full service grill with a Latino twist.

“This is the next step to bring (the casino) up to a level that is really something to get excited about,” says Wolf. “In this day and age, you can’t talk about going to a casino without it having good food.”